Report on UNLV Faculty Research Expertise
Division of Research and Graduate Studies
September 2012
UNLV has long recognized the need to identify and categorize faculty research expertise.
It is a priority for a variety of reasons: the need to distinguish institutional research
strengths; to facilitate faculty networking and interdisciplinary research; to help allocate
resources strategically; to promote economic development; and to enhance public
understanding of the university, to name a few.
In the long-term, the university is pursuing the development of an online faculty
expertise database with an external vendor (Digital Measures) that will allow faculty to
self report and update their areas of research expertise. However, the multi-year project
is still in its earliest phases, and limited data on faculty exists at this point. In order to
provide a short-term solution, the Division of Research and Graduate Studies has
developed a master list of faculty research expertise. This data was collected over the
course of several months in 2011-2012 by mining information on expertise areas from
faculty websites and from direct email contact with faculty.
The resulting master list is a snapshot of the research expertise of approximately 900
faculty members from all UNLV colleges. This master list, found on online at
http://www.unlv.edu/research/clusters, is sorted in various ways. Colleges and
departments are listed on the left. Each faculty member is also sorted into topical areas
of potential interest to the community, represented in two major overarching
categories:
UNLV Research Expertise Clusters – The UNLV Research Expertise Clusters column
includes subject areas defined by UNLV and offers the most comprehensive listing of
UNLV faculty. These areas include Business/Hotel; Education; Energy and Environment;
Health; Infrastructure & Technology; Social Services; and Cultural. A 'Y' in a given column
indicates expertise in the given topical area. All faculty listed will appear in at least one
of these clusters. Explanation of each of the research expertise clusters is provided
below:
Energy and Environment – The energy and environment cluster represents expertise in
various sectors, including energy (renewable, nuclear, power transmission), and water
(supply, demand, treatment, processes), and environment (earth and space sciences).
Infrastructure and Technology – The infrastructure and technology cluster includes
faculty with expertise in such fields as transportation, built environment, building
systems, and cyber infrastructure (e.g., high performance computing, parallel
computing, and software frameworks).
Education – The education cluster represents expertise of faculty conducting research
related to educational psychology, teaching and learning, and clinical studies.
Health – The health cluster represents expertise in various fields, including
biotechnology, molecular biology, health care, environmental and occupational health,
epidemiology, public health, and nursing.
Social Systems – The social systems cluster includes faculty expertise related to human
capital and human systems in fields such as sociology, political science, history,
psychology, and social work.
Business/Hotel Administration – The business/hotel cluster represents expertise in the
various sectors involving gaming, hotel administration, economic development,
economic analysis, and market analysis.
Cultural – The cultural cluster includes faculty expertise in such fields as the fine and
performing arts, design, and the humanities.
Economic Development Sectors – The Economic Development Sectors column includes
key areas of interest to the community and state defined by the Nevada Office of
Economic Development. The topical areas include the following: Aerospace & Defense;
Business IT Ecosystems; Clean Energy/Environment; Health & Medical Services; Logistics
& Operations; Mining Materials & Manufacturing; and Tourism, Gaming and
Entertainment. A 'Y' in a given column indicates expertise in the given topical area. It
should be noted that not all UNLV faculty expertise falls into these categories.
Aerospace & Defense – This sector includes such areas as theory, design, and
development of a variety of technologies for aerospace and defense research and
applications, ranging from military transportation to improving the safety of soldiers.
Business IT Ecosystems – This sector involves the study of innovations in business,
telecommunications, IT infrastructure, and cyber-security.
Clean Energy/Environment – This category represents all areas of renewable energy,
including wind, solar, and geothermal power, as well as renewable component design,
the expansion of energy transmission capacity, the advancement of geothermal
development, and energy-efficiency upgrades. It also includes sustainability-oriented
research.
Health & Medical Services – This sector involves research on topics ranging from disease
prevention and treatment to improvement of and access to health care. Subjects such
as biotechnology, health care policy, pharmaceuticals, therapeutics, cancer treatment,
and prosthetics are among the topics researched.
Logistics & Operations – This category refers to such areas as domestic and global
exporting; ground, rail, and air transportation of goods; warehousing and wholesale
trade; and logistical support of existing industries.
Mining, Materials & Manufacturing – This sector represents research on subjects such as
improved identification and understanding of natural resources, creation of novel
materials, and surface science.
Tourism, Gaming & Entertainment – This area represents wide-ranging areas such as
convention and hospitality administration, gaming practices and innovations, gambling
addictions, and entertainment engineering.
Note: The graphs below contain “snapshot data” representing UNLV faculty expertise
at a given point in time. The Division of Research and Graduate Studies continues to
update the list of faculty expertise as new information becomes available and as new
individuals join the faculty.
Data on UNLV Research Expertise Clusters
The following research expertise clusters were defined by the UNLV Division of Research
and Graduate Studies with the goal of providing categories that characterize all UNLV
research. Hence, this is the most comprehensive listing of UNLV faculty expertise.
Number of Faculty in UNLV Research Expertise Clusters
Data on Economic Development Sectors
The following graph represents the number of all UNLV faculty whose research can be
categorized into the Economic Development Sectors defined by the Nevada Office of
Economic Development in its report, “Moving Nevada Forward: A Plan for Excellence in
Economic Development.” As noted above, not all UNLV research may be appropriately
placed in these categories; thus, not all faculty research is represented in this graph.
Number of Faculty in Economic Development Sectors
It is also valuable to understand how sponsored research projects align with the
Economic Development Sectors. The following graph indicates the number of active
2012 UNLV sponsored projects in each of these sectors (as of June 1, 2012).
Number of UNLV Sponsored Projects Categorized
by Economic Development Sectors